Sunday, June 01, 2008

On... The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo

A couple months back I looked up the summer reading list for the middle schools in my local school district and added every book on that list to my want to read list. I figured that if I in a year or so may be teaching Language Arts to middle schoolers that I should have read what they are assigned to read.

The Dear America series is on that list (I also finished two books in that series but am not going to review them. I wouldn't have much besides the same praise I have already given. :D) but I would read those books even if they weren't on the list. The Other Side of Truth is the first book besides the Dear America series that I have read from that list.

Wow. What a very well written book. This book tells the story of two children, Sade and Femi who flee their native Nigeria immediately after the murder of their mother and find themselves lost and without family in London. Naidoo tells the story from an omniscient third person narrator but places much emphasis on the events that occur to Sade specifically.

I absolutely loved this book because of the fantastic storytelling and felt so sorry for Sade and Femi because of the terrible circumstances that surrounded them. I knew that of course these characters were fictional but unfortunately the situation the fled from is very real.

I definitely recommend this book.

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